Promoting Rich Cultural Diversitythrough the 2024 Africa Day
Olam Agri in Nigeria, a leading agribusiness in food, feed and fibre, recently set the pace in promoting the African continent’s rich cultural diversity when they marked Africa Day 2024 with vibrant festivitiesacross its location’s headquarters in Nigeria, Victoria Ojiako reports
Africa Day is celebrated on May 25th annually. It is dedicated to celebrating the continent’s vast cultural heritage. It also focuses on highlighting the continent’s economic potential while stimulating assertive actions towards achieving wider prosperity and unity across countries.
This year’s theme which emphasised education as a critical lever for spurring growth on the continent was complemented by Olam Agri’s unique driving focus, “Embrace Africa’s Richness, Diversity, and Spirit”.
Led by its Country Head, Anil Nair, the agribusiness hosted its staff members to a celebration that showcased its African origin, diverse workforce, hospitality and commitment to promoting the unique cultural heritage of its host markets. The celebration featured dance troupes performing to the rhythm of African drums, cultural dances, convivial exchanges and local games.
Employees clad in different local attires from the famous Babban Riga and Juanni to the hand-woven Aso-Oke and Agbada, Isiagu, Akwette and various other traditional styles extending to the wider African culture. The staff members participated in sessions targeted at fostering team bonding, received exciting gifts, danced to popular local songs and were treated to tasty local cuisine.
Anil said, “As a business that was founded in Nigeria over 30 years ago, we are proud of our African origin. This continent is fertile. Our driving focus continues to include promoting the rich cultural heritage on the continent, creating an inclusive workforce and channelling investment towards actualizing the economic potential across the market through massive employment generation and development of the agricultural value chain.”
“We are proud of the cultural diversity on the continent and the unique giftedness of the population who represent a dynamic force on the global scene. We believe this continent offers greater hope. Hence, we will continue to collaborate with stakeholders across the continent to feed the visions of achieving a well-nourished and prosperous Africa.”
Olam Agri’s African operations are spread across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Senegal and South Africa. Earlier in the year, the Top Employers Institute a global authority on recognising excellence in People Practices certified Olam Agri as a Top Employer for a 4thconsecutive year in eight countries, including Australia, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Olam Agri is a market leading, differentiated food, feed and fibre agri-business with a global origination footprint, processing capabilities and deep understanding of market needs built over 33 years.
With a strong presence in high-growth emerging markets and products across grains & oilseeds, integrated feed & protein, rice, edible oils, specialty grains & seeds, cotton, wood products, rubber and commodity financial services, Olam Agri is at the heart of global food and agri-trade flows with 38.3 million MT in volume traded in 2022.
Focused on transforming food, feed, and fibre for a more sustainable future, it aims at creating value for customers, enable farming communities to prosper sustainably and strive for a food-secure future. Olam Agri is a fully owned subsidiary of Olam Group.
Olam Group on the other hand is a leading food and agri-business supplying food, ingredients, feed, and fibre to 20,200 customers worldwide.
Their value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing, and distribution operations, as well as a global network of farmers. Through their purpose to ‘Re-imagine Global Agriculture and Food Systems’, Olam Group aims to address the many challenges involved in meeting the needs of a growing global population, while achieving positive impact for farming communities, the planet and all their stakeholders.
Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam Group currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalization on SGX-ST.
Since June 2020, Olam Group has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, a global sustainable investment index series developed by FTSE Russell, following a rigorous assessment of Olam’s supply chain activities, impact on the environment and governance transparency. The FTSE4Good Index Series identifies companies that demonstrate strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices and is used by a variety of market participants to create and assess responsible investment funds.
